Google Employees Complain about CEO Sundar Pichai’s Pay Raise as Cost Cuts Hit Rest of The Company

Meanwhile, in response to slowing revenue growth, Alphabet, Google's parent company, has been aggressively cutting costs, including eliminating 12,000 jobs.

This convergence of circumstances has infuriated Google's staff. Internal Google forums have been flooded with chats and memes criticizing Pichai for getting a salary raise while lowering expenditures elsewhere in the weeks after his yearly remuneration was made public. Employees were also critical of the share repurchase, which was the same as the buyback in 2022.

According to SEC records, Pichai made $226 million in compensation in 2018, most of which came from a stock award worth $218 million that he gets every three years. His total remuneration in the most recent year he earned the award (2019) was $280.6 million, with the prize worth $276.6 million.

In 2022, he received a $2 million salary and a personal security budget of over $6 million. Pichai's total remuneration in 2021 was $6.3 million, including his base salary of $2 million and $4.3 million in bonuses and stock options.

Memes started to circulate comparing Pichai to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, who took a 40% pay decrease from his projected figure for 2022 in January. Simultaneous with the layoffs, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan announced he would take a 98% pay cut and turn down a bonus. CEO Jeff Lawson of Twilio has announced that he would also accept a wage cut as part of the company's 17% employee reduction.

According to postings seen by CNBC, more than a dozen memes posted by Google workers have flooded the company's internal discussion boards.

Finance head Ruth Porat announced "multi-year" changes to staff services in a rare companywide email last month, which was the subject of a meme with over 1,200 likes.

According to CNBC, companies have been cutting down on everything from fitness classes to cafeteria food to staff computers.